Rauner Signs Executive Order Designed To Cut Red Tape Burdening Small Businesses

(CBS) — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Monday an Executive Order designed to cut red tape that would reduce over-regulation, and—his office says—to grow the economy.

The event was at the College of DuPage, where he was joined by business leaders and New York-based government reformer Philip Howard of the group Common Good, WBBM’s Craig Dellimore reports.

Back in August the Governor signed a bill designed to take a hard look at regulations that burden small businesses. Presumably this is a continuation of the efforts.

The order, officials say, will establish an Illinois Competitiveness Council — a panel that reviews agency rules and policies, ensures regulations are up to date and that rules are easy to understand. The council’s task at hand is to make sure that there’s a clear need for any sort of regulation on the books, and reduce the amount of “unduly burdensome requirements” on businesses and social service providers.

The council also will look at the state’s licensing process — as the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has found it’s issuing high numbers of licenses in some categories and very few in others. The council is expected to have a plan by May.

In an event immediately following, Rauner sat down with business people to discuss what his office says are Structural Reforms to Foster Economic Development. The Governor will be joined at the discussion by Republican Congressman Peter Roskam who’s recently publicly wavered in his support of GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump…but at last check was still backing him.

Rauner has made instituting a series pro-business reforms a cornerstone of his time in office, an effort he’s largely tied to the passage of a full-year state budget, which Illinois has gone without since July 2015.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Craig Dellimore

Craig Dellimore, political editor for WBBM, joined the station in 1983 after working for several years with the Associated Press Radio Network in WashingtonD.C. He says that he been honored to take over a post masterfully manned by Bob Crawford,...